I've never run into someone who asked until just last week. A bride asked if she could pay for $170 work of engagement prints with a credit card. We have a good repitoir so I told her that if she wanted to pay by CC I could accept a Paypal payment. (PS- she has paid for everything else thus far with a check)

I know that moving forward I should probably set something up that is more official, but was curious as to what everyone else did. I've used a CC (debit) to pay for portrait prints before, but it was a high end photographer who averages $1000+ per client. That's not me. Yet.

I have Pay Pal integrated with my ordering system to accept credit cards. When an order is placed online they can pay with a credit card without a pay pal account.
That is what has worked for me so far. I looked into POS system but it required;
-$600 POS terminal
-Phone Line (I only use BlackBerrys)
-a monthly fee
-and a % of each sale

In the end it just did not seem worth it.
Beside, I do not have to worry about all the admin, now, just track what each trasaction cost me and when it is worth it to swich to a POS Sytem, I will.

I used to have an online store that was a hobby business but what i did is i went to a friend who has a retail store nearby and asked him to run my charges for me. we had a deal where i would bring the CC info into his store and he would run the charge. at the end of the month he would total up my charges, subtract $2 per charge for his service and subtract the transaction charges from his POS account. most months his fees from me covered his service charge and I got to take CCs without the hassle of setting up my own POS.

People pay for anything with cards from passports sessions ($20) to weddings (thousands). It's not so much the amount of the sale. Some folks (like me) never carry cash and others like the convenience.

I used to have an online store that was a hobby business but what i did is i went to a friend who has a retail store nearby and asked him to run my charges for me. we had a deal where i would bring the CC info into his store and he would run the charge. at the end of the month he would total up my charges, subtract $2 per charge for his service and subtract the transaction charges from his POS account. most months his fees from me covered his service charge and I got to take CCs without the hassle of setting up my own POS.

might work for you if you know someone with a retail store.

jerry

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FYI, this is usually against the rules of the processor, so most people would be inclined to not do this.

I once had a processor for my business that cost about $100 a year to maintain plus the various fees associated with each purchase. Really quite cheap compared to most. They don't appear to be in business anymore however.

FYI, this is usually against the rules of the processor, so most people would be inclined to not do this.

I once had a processor for my business that cost about $100 a year to maintain plus the various fees associated with each purchase. Really quite cheap compared to most. They don't appear to be in business anymore however.

Yeah, as of yet I take credit cards in the form of Paypal. (I'm thinking of setting up with Google Checkout as well). If they want to I can do the charge while they are there, and its really quite cheap, 35 cents plus 2.5 percent of the overall bill. It would be nice to have a POS etc. but unless you do a lot of business, and have your own location I don't really see the value.